The quiet suicide epidemic plaguing French farmers

Sadly, its not just farmers, seems to be quite a common occurrence with single middle to old aged men around here.

Similar in the UK only there are fewer farmers - there was a theory that sheepdip and other neurotoxic chemicals had a part in it.

I was working in the Dordogne region, outside the Little Britain region, about 30 years ago. It was as big a problem then as now.
Nothing so jolly as being shown around a farm and being shown where the farmer ended his own life, and those of his children😢.

Sadly I can think of 4 farm labourers in the UK that I knew that topped themselves,
The first one blow his brains out with a shot gun barrels in the mouth & pulled the trigger with his toe.
The 2nd off a scaffold while the house was being repainted.
The 3rd a young couple, him & his girlfriend hose pipe from the exhaust of a car into the window
The 4rd really had a good go & finally achieved his aim: I can remember him trying with pills & booze, he was saved in time. the second time cut both wrists with a band saw, saved again. the last time is really shocking & particularly sad. he drowned himself by going head first into a tractor driven sprayer, the fire brigade had to cut the sprayer in to to get him out, his son was in the local fire brigade & was one of the first of the emergency service to reach the scene.

Thanks for that, but could you be a bit more explicit…:scream:

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I think BSE, foot and mouth, low milk prices and very late paying of single payments making cash flow even harder all contributes to hard lives for farmers.
Of course, they do tend to live solitary lives, which doesn’t help.

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